


Secret like a Smile (with Teeth to Reveal)

by tuesday



Category: Rubyquest
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Horror, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 11:32:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17120570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesday/pseuds/tuesday
Summary: Red's smile was too small.  It was weird, but that was what unnerved Ruby the most.  Not the lack of memories, not the seemingly wiped-clean, factory reset personality, and not the fact he'd regrown from a severed paw she probably should have left back at the Glen.  It was his smile—shy, sweet.  It was his eyes—bright, clear.  It was his mouth, slightly curved and revealing what looked to be the proper number of teeth.Red's smile was too small.  There was a part of Ruby, bubbling up and in danger of boiling over, that longed to fix it.





	Secret like a Smile (with Teeth to Reveal)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cricket_aria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricket_aria/gifts).



> Please see the end notes for extra content notes and warnings.

Red's smile was too small. It was weird, but that was what unnerved Ruby the most. Not the lack of memories, not the seemingly wiped-clean, factory reset personality, and not the fact he'd regrown from a severed paw she probably should have left back at the Metal Glen. It was his smile—shy, sweet. It was his eyes—bright, clear. It was his mouth, slightly curved and revealing what looked to be the proper number of teeth.

Red's smile was too small. There was a part of Ruby, bubbling up and in danger of boiling over, that longed to fix it.

When Tom asked—and he did, came running right after her when she snuck out, following the footprints left in the sand when she left their beachfront camp behind—that was what she told him. That was why she had to leave. Whatever madness had possessed her in the Glen, it hadn't run its course. She was dangerous. She'd rather not have a repeat of the very start of this mess. She needed to be alone. He needed to leave her alone, or she couldn't guarantee she wouldn't have the urge to cut him open, too.

Tom's face fell, but he let her go.

Red's smile was too small. It was a thought that drove Ruby into the night.

 

* * *

 

Red's smile was too small, but it followed her. First, in her dreams, curled up under a bush and sleeping fitfully. Were they memories? Were they imaginings? Ruby didn't know.

In her dreams, Red sat across from her in a chair that rolled closer. His touch didn't linger when he checked her vitals, but there was something in his eyes that said he wanted it to. Ruby's own touch, at his wrist as she thanked him, stayed long past the point of propriety. Regret, faint, but real, tinged his expression when he pulled away. It wasn't right, he'd said. She was his patient, he reminded her. Maybe—if she got better, if he could fix her, if the cure worked—if she wasn't his _patient_ anymore—

When she woke up, it was to that too small smile from far too close, Red less than a foot from her as he poked her with a stick.

"Why?" Ruby asked.

"I thought you might be dead," Red said. He looked like he was considering poking her with the stick again, just to be sure.

Ruby rolled out from under the bush and sat up, but he didn't back away or give her extra space to do so. "No, why did you follow me?"

Red tilted his head. "Did you not want me to?"

"Yes," Ruby said slowly, sleep still clinging sticky like spider webs to her thoughts. "I didn't want you to."

"Mm. You should have said so."

"I'm saying so now."

Red didn't budge. "I didn't say I would have listened." They stayed there for a moment, Ruby sitting upright beside the bush, Red crouched beside her, only inches away. Red reached out—and drew back with a leaf clutched between two claws. "Not the best spot to sleep. You have a twig in your ears."

That would certainly explain the discomfort. Ruby brushed at the top of her head to dislodge it. Red watched, his mouth far too small for the emotion it contained in its fond, gentle curve.

"Why are you still here?" Ruby asked him.

"Where else would I go?"

"With Tom," Ruby said. "And Jay." Jay had even started speaking recently, had introduced himself by name.

Red shook his head. "I think not." He poked her with the stick again, this time directly in the center of her chest. "No, where you go, I will follow." He let the stick drop. "At least, for now."

"That's really not a good idea," Ruby said, though now that Red was here, she was reluctant to see the back of him. "You know why I left."

"I do," Red agreed. "Do you?"

They made a new camp. Red was surprisingly handy at making a lean-to with the few supplies they had on hand. Then again, considering the way he'd made a bomb out of a handful of seeming detritus, maybe it wasn't such a surprise after all. He had a way of looking at everything like it was a puzzle he'd solved as a child and which had only grown easier as he'd aged. Cut this down, snap this together, grab a few palm leaves—he instructed Ruby on the placement of each element and suddenly they had a cozy little home.

"After you," Red said, solicitous and smiling.

"We couldn't make two?" Ruby asked.

"We could." Red slid in after her anyway. He curled up with her, and where Tom, Jay, and Ruby herself had always claimed the comfort of cuddling under the auspice of sharing body heat as the temperatures dropped each night, Red made no such pretenses. He buried his face in her neck and dropped off to sleep.

Despite his teeth only millimeters and one impulsive action away from tearing out her throat, Ruby did, too.

 

* * *

 

In her dreams, Ruby remembered those teeth, reveled in their glorious reveal, reached out for more. Something reached back. When she woke, Red's paw was in her mouth. Carefully, she removed it.

Red, who was wide awake and looked like he had been for some time, cleared his throat. "This is awkward."

"Yes." Ruby watched him rub his saliva-damp paw on the grass that made up their lean-to's floor.

"Next time," Red said with all the assurance of one who was resigned to something happening again, "would you prefer I wake you immediately or just wait until you bite down?"

"Next time, don't let me stick your paw in my mouth."

Red laughed. It was laced with something that was not humor. Eventually, he caught his breath. He said, "You say that like I could stop you."

 

* * *

 

During the day, the smile followed, too. They wandered, seemingly aimless, though Ruby made sure never to turn back, to always leave her footprints at her back and her friends behind. There was no helping Red, but at least Tom and Jay would be safe when she inevitably snapped.

"Why do you think it inevitable?" Red asked mildly.

"We both know I'm cracking up," Ruby said.

"That presumes it hasn't happened already." Red's smile was small, too small. "How much further do you have left to go?"

"Not far enough," Ruby muttered.

Red was silent as his form paced the sand alongside her. Beside her, waves whispered against the shore. Ruby tried to ignore their words.

(They lied. They lied. Everything from the instant she first woke was a lie.)

 

* * *

 

It hurt, how small Red's smile was.

In her dreams, he told her, "I want to. _I want to_. But it's not just an ethics concern. Let's—if we must, let's discuss it later, after, if you even want me anymore." His smile was tremulous. "It's a big world. Even here, there are other patients." He let her take a paw between her own. "Be patient or find another, but this is a no for now."

"For now," Ruby echoed.

Red's smile firmed up, but it remained troubled. It was too small to contain the depths of his feelings.

Ruby smiled back. She reached for the scalpel. Maybe _she_ could help _him_ for once.

 

* * *

 

Awake, Ruby held his paw between her own. It was too small, the fur thinner than she knew it should be.

"You were only trying to help," Red reassured her. "We were all only ever trying to help."

She pressed its claw tips to her mouth.

 

* * *

 

In her best dreams, Red's smile was wide, his teeth at her neck.

"I love you," Red said. "I loved you."

Joy squirmed in her throat as he bit down.

 

* * *

 

It was an island, and they'd come full circle, standing beside the tram that had brought them here.

"We're not those people." Red's gaze remained fixed on the Metal Glen.

"We could be," Ruby tried to convince him, to convince herself.

"No," Red said. He wasn't smiling now. "But maybe we could've been."

"We still could." When she closed her eyes, she could pretend his paw clutched back at hers. When she opened her third one, she could look back on a time when that was true. "If we had the chance."

"Ruby. You stupid, beautiful, optimistic girl. Turn back. Turn away. There's nothing left for you there."

Ruby swallowed hard. She held a part of Red, carried him with her. "You don't get to tell me what to do anymore."

Ruby put her feet on the track and her back to the shore. Behind her, a ghost watched her progress. She took step after unsteady step forward. She left it behind.

In her arms, almost unnoticed, the paw throbbed slowly, gently, with something like a heartbeat.

**Author's Note:**

> Content warnings: In addition to canon-typical violence and canonical character death, in this story Red is (maybe) still dead and Ruby sees things that (maybe) aren't there. Whichever the case, Ruby is almost certainly going to make an attempt at contravening Red's last wishes in order to try to revive him. I'd like to believe she succeeds.


End file.
